Thread: Two guilty pleas in 4 immigrant deaths

Two guilty pleas in 4 immigrant deaths

By Pamela Manson and Roxana Orellana pmanson@sltrib.com
The Salt Lake Tribune


http://www.sltrib.com/ci_7342945

The deaths of undocumented workers in separate rollovers in Utah brought two guilty pleas on Thursday.
Raul Ramirez-Becerra, a 27-year-old accused of smuggling foreign nationals into the country two years ago, pleaded guilty to transporting illegal aliens resulting in death. cq official name of charge He faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced on Jan. 10 by U.S. District Judge Dee Benson but he is likely to get far less.
Prosecutors say the people who hired him to get them into the United States ended up on a van that rolled Oct. 11, 2005, near Moab, throwing several of the passengers out and killing two of them. Ramirez-Becerra, who also was riding in the vehicle, walked away from a Moab-area hospital and was a fugitive until this summer, when he was arrested in Phoenix.
Ramirez-Becerra had been using the name Ramses Castellano-Lin. He recently revealed his true name to authorities.
His co-defendant, Noe Luna-Escalona, was driving the van carrying 15 other people - including 14 immigrants who allegedly had entered the country illegally - when he fell asleep and drifted off U.S. Highway 191. He overcorrected and rolled the 2000 Dodge Caravan. Two Guatemalan women, Juana Ixcuna-Chich and Amalia Perez-Lucas, were killed.
Luna-Escalona, 18 at the time, had agreed to a request by Ramirez-Becerra to

drive. He was sentenced by Benson in 2006 to two years in prison.
In the other case, which was before U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell, 35-year-old Marvin Eduardo Barrios-Socop admitted Thursday to the same charge of transporting illegal aliens and was sentenced to 30 months behind bars.
Two immigrants died when the Ford F-150 pickup in which they were riding on June 7 rolled about 20 miles east of Hurricane.
The driver of the vehicle, Eswin Enrique Aquino-Lopez, was sentenced Wednesday to 27 months in prison. The F-150 was carrying seven undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala when the rollover occured on State Road 59.
Two Guatemalans were ejected and died. They have been identified by the Guatemalan Consulate as Senayda Solis Monzon, 37, and Pedro Antonio Coycoy, 26.
Just two months before the rollover on S.R. 59, another fatal accident involving human smuggling occurred in Utah.
According to court documents, Rigoberto Sales-Lopez, a Guatemalan, was driving a Chevrolet Suburban on April 16 when it rolled on U.S. Highway 191 south of Bluff. Eight of the 14 people on board were killed.
Four in the van were from Mexico and 10 were from Guatemala, according to officials. Everyone was believed to be in the United States illegally.
Sales-Lopez allegedly told agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that a man gave him the van in Phoenix and paid him $1,000 to drive the passengers from there to St. Louis. That man, Adolfo Manuel Espinoza, and Sales-Lopez both were charged with transporting illegal aliens resulting in death.
The fatal crashes have taken a particular hard toll on Guatemalan immigrants. Wendy Widmann de Berger, first lady of Guatemala, was in Utah Thursday and said it is important for her country to retain its people for its own workforce.
"Many women have been left alone and naturally the topic and focus becomes what to do with so many families who have been left without a father and need the support and assistance of the government and any other agency that can facilitate a job and education so they can move ahead," Widmann de Berger said.
Sales-Lopez has pleaded guilty to transporting illegal aliens resulting in death and is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 17 by U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell. The case against Espinoza is pending.

Smuggler Sentenced to 30 Months for Crash that Killed Two

Last Edited: Friday, 18 Jan 2008, 4:56 PM MST
Created: Friday, 18 Jan 2008, 4:56 PM MST

Local News on MyFOXUtah.com

MOAB, Utah -- A man accused of smuggling illegal immigrants into the United States during a trip that ended with two deaths will spend 30 months in prison.

U.S. District Judge Dee Benson imposed the punishment Thursday on Raul Ramirez-Becerra, 27, who had pleaded guilty to transporting illegal aliens resulting in death.

Prosecutors say a group of 15 was traveling in a van that rolled in October 2005 near Moab. Several of the passengers were thrown from the vehicle. Two were killed.

Ramirez-Becerra walked out of a Moab-area hospital and was a fugitive until his arrest in Phoenix last summer.

Co-defendant Noe Luna-Escalona, who was driving the van was sentenced in 2006 to 24 months in prison.

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